Crater Lake

July–August is busiest, and viewpoint parking fills by midday.

One of the snowiest places in the U.S. — more than 40 feet a year — so Rim Drive does not fully reopen until about July. Wildfire smoke can affect late-summer views.

The best all-around lake view in the park. Switchbacks to 8,054 ft reward you with a full panorama of the caldera, Wizard Island, and the Cascades.

The highest point in the park at 8,934 ft. On a clear day you can see all the way to Mount Shasta. Expect wind at the summit.

The only trail that reaches the lake shore — 700 feet down (and back up) to the dock where boat tours depart for Wizard Island.

A flat canyon-rim walk above dramatic spires of welded pumice along Sand Creek — a totally different landscape from the rest of the park.

Follows the west rim to the overlook where prospector John Wesley Hillman first laid eyes on the lake in 1853 and called it Deep Blue Lake.

A 172-mile loop through old-growth Douglas fir, past Umpqua waterfalls and the wild Rogue River Gorge. Connects the park to the Willamette Valley — perfect for an approach or exit route.

Oregon's high-country highway west of Bend: glacier-fed lakes, the Three Sisters volcanic peaks, and Newberry National Volcanic Monument. About 100 miles north of Crater Lake.

Heads east into the high desert from Lakeview — remote sage steppe, rimrock, and almost no traffic. A complete tonal shift from the volcanic forest of Crater Lake.